Philly Cop Shooting on Trump’s List of “Under-Reported” Attacks
L: Donald Trump via Michael Vadon (license) | R: Officer Jesse Hartnett, Courtesy of Philadelphia Police
Following a meeting yesterday during which President Donald Trump accused media outlets of failing to properly publicize terrorist attacks, the White House listed 78 incidents that it claims were “under-reported” by the media – including the January 2016 shooting of a Philly cop.
The list, which came a few hours after Trump’s claim, references the shooting of Philadelphia police officer Jesse Hartnett, who was shot multiple times on January 7th, 2016, by a man who said he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
Hartnett was sitting in his patrol car at the corner of 60th and Spruce streets in West Philadelphia when the man, who police identified as Edward Archer, allegedly approached him and fired more than a dozen bullets into the car, hitting Hartnett three times. When he was arrested, Archer referenced ISIS and said he acted “in the name of Islam.” Video of the shooting prompted the incident to gain widespread attention, including from FBI director James Comey, and the attack was widely covered by both local and national media.
John McNesby, president of Philadelphia’s chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police union, disagreed with the White House when he told the Inquirer that the shooting was “all over the place” and that media outlets “covered it fairly.”
“I absolutely think it received enough coverage,” he told the newspaper.
Local officials were divided over whether or not to call the incident a “terrorist attack.” Hartnett survived, and Archer will stand trial later this year.
According to the Washington Post, Trump said during the meeting yesterday that terrorist attacks aren’t “even being reported. And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that.”
The list provided by the White House, which includes several typos and errors, also references incidents like the June 2016 mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando and the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris – some of the most widely-covered recent attacks – as well as other incidents that have taken place around the world.
Last week, during an MSNBC interview, Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway referenced what she called the “Bowling Green massacre” terrorist attack, claiming most people don’t know about the supposed attack “because it didn’t get covered.” But there is no such thing as the Bowling Green massacre.
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